We try not to take life too seriously here at the MJM office. We decided it was the perfect time of year to try our hand at carving some MJM-themed pumpkins. As it turns out, carving a pumpkin actually has a lot of similarities with design—as well as some unfortunate differences.

Here are a few things we learned while carving pumpkins:

1. Pumpkins Are a Blank Canvas

Just like in design, pumpkins allow you to start with a blank canvas to work on. And like with a project scope, your parameters are already set. In this case, the scope was defined by the size and shape of the pumpkin and what message we hoped our pumpkins would deliver to those who see it.
We wanted our pumpkin to be extra scary, so we carved Matt’s face into it.

2. There’s No Command+Z

Unfortunately, there are no undo buttons or shortcut keys when it comes to pumpkin carving. We learned this the hard way on our pumpkin featuring our brand new MJM logo. Because we couldn’t go back, we were forced to get creative in new ways and improvise—a welcome challenge.

3. Creating Is Fun

Okay, this one may sound silly, so hear me out. When you design on a computer all day, every day, you can sometimes forget that what you are actually doing is creating. A change of medium (to a pumpkin, in this case) is a surprisingly fun way to reconnect with the art of making things.